Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-24

fest above the sea, but most Of the land is
even higher. the greatest elevation of the
open country being. l believe, about II 900
feet As consequence the climate is COM
paratively speaking. a cold one. being very
similar to that of southern England, only
brighter and not 50 rainy The land is. how
ever, exceedingly fertile. and grows all cereals
and temperate fruits and timber to perfec-
ton; and in the lower lying parts even pro-
iuces hardy variety of sugar cane. Coal is
| found in great abundance, and III many places
crops out from the surface; and SO is pure
marble, both black and white. The same
NAV be said Of almost every metal except
silver, which is scarce, and only to he OBJ
tanned from a range Of mountains in the
north
Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a
great variety OF scenery. including two
ranges of snowclad mountains. one on the
western boundary beyond the imlenetrable
belt OF thorn forest and the other piercing
the country from north to south. and passing
at a distance Of about eighty miles from Milo
SIS, from which town Its higher peaks are
| distinctly visible. This range forms the chief
| watershed of the land. There are also three
large lakes-the biggest, namely that where
on we emerged, and which is named Miloss
after the city. covering some 100 square
miles Of country-and numerous small ones,
some Of them salt
, The population Of this favored land is, COM
paratively speaking, dense, numbering at .
rough estimate from 100000 to l., ,O0O, 900.
As TO their descent can give no certain in
formation. Their written records, which ex
tend back for about Zoo years, give no hint
| II it. One very ancient chronicler does in
| Iced, in alluding to some old tradition that
| ,xisted in his day, talk Of it as having prob
| ably originally come down with the people
| from the coast, but that may mean little or
| nothing. In short, the origin of the Zu-N Nendi
Is lost in the mists Of time Whence they
ame or Of what race they are no man knows
| Cheir architecture and some Of their sculp-
rures suggest All Egyptian o. possibly an As
| present remarkable style OF building has only
sprung up within the last 500 years, and they
certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theolo-
| gy or customs. Again, their appearance and
some of their habits are rather Jewish; but
here again it seems hardly conceivable that
they should have utterly lost all traces OF the
Jewish religion. Still, for aught l know
they may ba one Of the lost ten tribes wbsm
|
world, or they may not. do not know. and
SO can only describe them as find them, and
leave wiser heads than mine to make what
they can out Of it, if indeed this account
should ever lie read nt all. which is exceed
ingly doubtful
In a. lion TO being an agricultural people
the Zu-Vendi are, oddly enough, excessively
warlike; and as they cannot, from the ex-
gency Of their position, make war upon Q; her
nations. they fight among each other like the
famed Kilkenny cats. with the happy result
that the population never outsrows the power
Of the country to support it. This habit of
theirs is largely fostered by the political con-
| dition of the country. The monarchy is
| nominaly All absolute one, save in SO far as it
| is tempered by the power of the priests and
the informal council of the grca, lords: but,
as in many other such institutions. the king
writ does not run unquestioned throughout
the length and breadth of the land.
| Zu-Vendis has had its king makers as well
as England, fact that will lie appreciated
| when l state that eight different dyna-ties
| have sat upon the throne during the last
1900 years, every one Of which took its rise
| from some noble family that succe, dei in
grasping the purple after a sanguInary strug
| gle At the date of our arrival in the country
things were little better than they had been
| for some centuries the last king, the father
| OF Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an c1-
| ceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a
consequence. kept down the power Of the
priests and mobiles On his death, two years
before we reached Zu- Vendis the twin sisters,
MS children, We're, following an ancient pre-
| cedent called TO the throne since All attempt
to exclude either would instantly have pro
voked u sanguinary civil war: but it was
generally felt in the country that this meas
ure was a most unsatisfactory one, and could
hardly be expected TO he permanent. Indeed,
US il was, tn various intrigues that We're set
on foot by ambitious MOBILES to obtain the
| hand Of one or other Of the queens in mar
riage had disquieted the country. and the
general opinion was that there would be
bloodshed before long.
l will now pass on to the question Of the
Zu- Vendi religion, which is nothing more or
less than sun worship Of q pronounced and
highly developed character. Around this
sun worship is GROUPED the entire social sys
tenn Of the Zu-Vendi 1t sends its roots
through every institution and custom Of the
land From the cradle to the grave the Zu-
Vendi follows the sun in every sense Of the
word
The priests of the sun do not marry, but
are recruited by young men specially de-
voted 10 the work by their parents and sup
ported by the state. The nomination to the
higher Offices of the priesthood lies with the
crown, but once appointed, the nominees can
not be dispossessed. AMI IL is scarcely too
much to say that they really rule the land.
To begin with, they are a united body sworn